Create a fun candy dish quilt full of conversation hearts! These colorful heart-shaped pieced quilt blocks are reminiscent of the favorite Valentine's Day candy hearts and feature cute embroidered sayings. A perfect beginning quilting project to get your house cupid-ready, this quilt is a fun way to bring a bright pop of color to your decor and a smile to your face! Click here to download instructions.

Materials:

• 3/4 yard of 45” wide white cotton fabric
• 5/8 yard of 45” wide blue cotton fabric
• 1/2 yard of 45” wide pink cotton fabric (hearts and border)
• 1/2 yard of 45” wide yellow cotton fabric (hearts and binding)
• 1/8 yard of 45” wide lavender cotton fabric (hearts)
• 1/8 yard of 45” wide apricot cotton fabric (hearts)
• 1/8 yard of 45” wide green cotton fabric (hearts)
• 1 3/8 yards of 45” cotton backing fabric
• Cut away Stabilizer
• Spray Adhesive
• Quilt batting
• Bright pink embroidery thread
• Madeira Cotona thread for piecing
• Madeira quilting thread
• Rotary cutting system
• Basic sewing supplies

Tools:

• Baby Lock Embroidery and Sewing Machine
• Baby Lock Quilting Machine

Steps:

1. Cut the following:

   1. “A” blocks- cut two white fabric strips 5 ½” x width of fabric and then cut strips into sixteen blocks- 5 ½” x 5 ½”

   2. “B” blocks- cut from white fabric four strips 1½” x width of fabric, then cut 100 strips 1½” x 1½”. Cut two more strips 2½” x width of fabric, then cut 25 strips 2½” x 2½”

   3. From each of the pink, yellow, apricot, lavender and green cotton fabric cut one strip 3½” x width of fabric, and from each strip, cut 5 3½” x 2½” and 5 3½” x 5½”

   4. Row finishing triangles - cut two strips from blue fabric 5 7/8” x width of fabric, then cut 8 strips 5 7/8” x 5 7/8” x 5 7/8”. Also cut one 6 1/4” x 6 ¼” square

   5. From the pink cotton, cut border 1, consisting of two strips 2½” x 35 3/4” and two strips 2½” x 40”

2. To make the “B” block, stitch one 1½” square to two of the corners of each 2½” x 3½” and 3½” x 5½” colored pieces.

   1. Clip away the (corner) outside of each seam, press the seams toward the colored fabric.

3. Stitch a 2½” x 2½” white square to the right side of each colored 2½” x 3 ½” pieced section. Press the seam toward the colored piece.

4. Stitch the two units together. Press the seams toward the 3½” x 5½”units.

5. Prepare the machine for embroidery. Thread the machine with bright pink embroidery thread.

   1. For the embroidery, select a basic block font; select the necessary characters for the first conversation heart saying. Embroidery edit will be helpful for this process.

6. Hoop the heart block in the hoop, the placement of the block will be on the diagonal. Use spray adhesive on the cut away stabilizer.

7. Repeat the embroidery process for each of the conversation heart blocks, changing the saying with each heart. Trim away the excess stabilizer and press the blocks.

8. Prepare the blue blocks for the quilt by cutting the 5 7/8” squares into half along the diagonal and cut the one 6 ¼” square into fourths along the diagonals.

9. Lay the quilt out in rows. The rows will be on the diagonal with a blue half square triangle at each end. Press the seams toward the heart blocks.

   1. The blue quarter square triangles will be added after the rows have all been assembled.

10. Stitch the rows together and press.

11. Stitch one blue quarter square triangle to each of the four corners of the quilt top.

12. Sew the final border to the quilt by first sewing the top and bottom strips on the quilt and then the side borders to the quilt.

13. Cut and piece backing fabric to measure at least 4” larger on all sides than the quilt top measures.

14. Layer the quilt top, batting and backing. Baste the layers together.

15. Quilt as desired. In the sample, it was quilted using the Pro Stitcher and the Regalia long arm quilting machine.

16. Bind the quilt.